Film: Rocky Balboa

Directed by: Sylvester Stallone

Written by: Sylvester Stallone

Year: 2006

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Milo Ventimiglia

Reviewed by: El Pirata Diablo

I love the Rocky movies, but this one was very slow, and nothing happened until the end. There are three boring subplots. Rocky goes with Uncle Paulie to visit his wife’s grave or drop by his restaurant, Adrian’s. Rocky tries to get his son, who is a snobbish businessman, to respect him. And Rocky befriends a bartender, who was a troubled girl in the first Rocky movie. All this isn’t too exciting.

But then there’s Mason Dixon, the undefeated heavyweight champion, played by the first man to knock out Roy Jones, Antonio Tarver. He is so dominant in the division, but he has no legitimate competition, so he is disrespected by the fans. With no truly interesting fight to take, he is offered to fight the Italian Stallion.

This is when the movie starts to get interesting. Once Rocky starts training, and you get the montages and the music, your adrenaline starts flowing like it’s playoff time. This is what makes the Rocky movies great. Of course, you have to throw away the reality factor. Rocky still has no defense and he gets pummeled at will. And even in his 50s, he can still trade punches with the super fast champion. If you put that aside, you can sit back and enjoy the heart, will and desire of Rocky. It takes a long time to get exciting, but if you’ve seen the first five Rocky movies, then you’d have an empty feeling if you missed the finale.

5 damned souls (out of 10).

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